A large variety of high performance 100% dense products of a variety of shapes weighing few grams to many pounds in weight and in carbon, low and medium alloy steel compositions are made via forging and/or machining of cut preforms from 100% dense bars or ingots made from molten mass of low to medium alloy grades of a large variety of steels (series 1000 to 9000H to HS grades), stainless steels & many other alloys. Many similar and other products are also made via casting of molten alloys into desired shape, size and composition especially with higher levels of graphite in otherwise an alloyed composition. The low to medium alloy grades normally have Fe as the majority constituent and relatively smaller amounts of alloying ingredients of one or more of C, Si, Mn, Cr, Ni, Mo, V, Cu, Zr, Mb, Ti etc (each of the alloying ingredient when added is from very low to up to about 4%). These alloying elements are reasonably uniformly and homogenously dispersed in the alloy steels on a micro scale. These alloying elements help to increase strength, various other mechanical properties, wear resistance and/or corrosion resistance. They can be further heat treated to further increase some of these properties. These products are used in automobiles, motor cycles, bicycles, bearings, farm machinery, lawn & garden, aerospace, mining, home appliances and just about all major industries. The major disadvantages of going from molten alloy to ingots/bars to finished product via forging and/or machining are: low to vary low material utilization (leading to significant added cost); many forming & annealing operations (leading to significant added cost) and possibility of impurities appearing as “stringers” leading to lower dynamic mechanical properties such as fatigue life. These routes are also very energy intensive.
Powdered Metallurgy route to make some of these products has also been used. Just to mention three significantly different examples (1 to 3 below):